The final day of the season. The past seven months of players’ blood, sweat and tears, laid on the line week after week, reaching a thrilling climax. Emotionally frayed and loyal supporters crammed into a stadium, watching the final denouement play out before their eyes. The excitement of the unknown, building to a crescendo as full-time whistles blow across the country. Furious checking of radios or mobile devices for the results that matter to your team, searching for the information that could prove to be the difference between silverware, titles, pride and glory, and disappointment, hurt, ignominy and embarrassment. That’s how it should be, the final day of the season.

Yet, there will be none of those fraught emotions in Australia this weekend, at least not to such an extent, as the NRL’s home-and-away season drags its feet along towards a rather protracted close. The final round of fixtures, a round that will decide the identity of the minor premiers and that of the eight teams who will fill the finals berths in the closest regular season for years, if not ever, will by the final reckoning have run (or should that be ambled) over four days. During that period from Thursday to Sunday, amid a whole host of permutations, a great deal of the excitement of a potentially climactic finale will have been lost, diffused over three sleeps, softened by the passing of almost half a week.

So, as it is, the Roosters celebrated a thrilling win over the Rabbitohs on Thursday night – hard, as they would any victory over their great local rivals - but they will have to wait until Saturday night and the sound of the siren at 1300 Smiles Stadium before they find out if they have become minor premiers. Defeat for Manly against North Queensland in Townsville will hand the regular season title to the Roosters, but Chooks players and fans may find it difficult to get too excited about it, given they’ll likely be watching from the comfort of their couches at home, if at all. Yet imagine the thrill of not only beating their bitter rivals in front of more than 30,000 at Allianz, but also discovering at around the same time that Manly had fallen in Queensland and that the minor premiership was all theirs. Pandemonium. Equally, imagine if Souths had roared back to complete their attempted comeback against the Roosters as news filtered through that Manly were losing up north. Double celebrations and truly a night to remember.

Ask any Manchester City fan if their unbelievable last-day Premier League title win in 2012 was better or worse off for their great rivals Manchester United kicking off their final game at the same time, as happens every season in England. You’ll only get one response. In his match report, the Guardian’s chief UK football writer Daniel Taylor brilliantly managed to capture the madness of the final few moments of that day, the emotions surrounding those barely believable events only heightened by what was happening simultaneously different parts of the country. It just wouldn’t have been the same had there been a couple of days’ ‘cooling off period’ between the two games.

Of course, the end of the Premier League season is a different beast to that of the NRL; given the finals format that Australian sport favours, far less kudos is attached to the minor premierships. That more should be afforded to it, given that the best team always prevails over the course of a 24-game season and should be rewarded as such, is perhaps a debate for another time. But winning the minor premiership is still an achievement of quite some importance, not least because of the implications placings have for the finals themselves.

So diminished excitement aside, there is also the issue surrounding the dubious fairness of staggered scheduling. Possessing knowledge of what exactly is required on the final day of the season can be an undoubted advantage, despite inevitable bluster about how professionals will always play the same, give their all, no matter what the situation. But when the for-and-against column can be a decisive factor – as it can for prospective finalists this year – knowing whether to push for more points can only be beneficial. Another reason to regularise kick-off times for just one round a season.

Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. It’s no secret why the leagues and their television partners are treading this path – Paul Connolly, in his final-round preview, refers to the “bean-counters at the NRL, Nine and Foxtel laughing and slapping their thighs”, a odious image that sadly is all too easy to visualise – and as long as the game stays popular and TV rights remain king, it will be the executives who dictate when the fun is served up, regardless of other considerations. That’s a shame; sport should be about drama, but as things stand fans are missing a treat by being deprived of exactly that on what could be the most dramatic of days.